A Needed Presence in Iraq

Published: February 14, 2004

To the Editor:

I agree with Bing West (''Walking a Beat in Tikrit,'' Op-Ed, Feb. 11). Even though I have been an opponent of the war in Iraq, I hope that we will not pull out before we have secured the peace for the Iraqi people. It would have been better to effect peaceful change through the support of the Iraqi people by the United Nations against Saddam Hussein.

But now that we are there, we need to remain until the Iraqi people can unite to protect themselves against extremists and settle religious and ethnic conflicts.

If we fail to do this, another regime will come to power to fill the void, just as the Taliban did in Afghanistan.